World Rugby

One of the oldest International Federations of any sport, the International Rugby Football Board was formed in 1886 by representatives of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. England joined in 1890, but membership remained at just four members until the admission of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa in 1949. France joined in 1978, but it was not until the mid 1980s that the organization embraced membership from the less developed rugby nations.

Rugby Union has been contested at the Olympics at Paris 1900, London 1908, Antwerp 1920, and Paris 1924, always only with a men’s competition.

The Board organized the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, and the inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup would take place in 1991. In 1994, the federation received International Olympic Committee (IOC) approval, and it changed its name to the International Rugby Board in 1996.

After successful lobbying by the newly renamed World Rugby (rebrand in November 2014), the seven-a-side variant of the game was accepted into the Olympic programme in 2016 in Rio. The first Rugby World Cup Sevens had already been staged in 1993 for men teams, and the first World Cup including events for both genders had also taken place in 2009.

World Rugby has 134 national member unions (118 full members and 16 associate members) as of January 2026. Based in Dublin, Ireland, the federation’s current chairman is Australia’s Brett Robinson.

Note: The members provided the chairman in yearly rotation up to 1996.